FRANCE - MORE THAN 70% OF
LEGISLATIVE CONSTITUENCIES HAVE NEVER HAD A WOMAN REPRESENTATIVE
[Brussels,
06 June 2012] Ahead of legislative elections in France,
the NGO ‘Osez le féminisme’ has published figures showing that since 1988 more
than 70% of constituencies have never elected a woman to the National Assembly.
Out of 577 legislative constituencies, more than 400 have never been
represented by a woman over the last five terms; only eight have consistently
had women representatives.
The current National Assembly is
81,5% male, which puts France in 18th place among the EU Member States for
gender balance in parliamentary representation. Of the main political parties,
the UMP is presenting 28% women on its lists this time around; the Socialists
45%.
France
has legislation in place to ensure gender partity but political parties prefer
to pay fines rather than put women forward. The UMP last time around paid up
four million euros - or 12% of its budget - in fines; the PS paid 500,000 euros.
The newly elected President
François Hollande made a campaign promise to remove subsidies from political
parties which fail to apply parity rules.